Review by Graham Johnstone
Igort is the pen name of Italian artist/writer Igor Tuveri. Working since the 1970s, and acclaimed in Europe and Japan, he’s less known in the anglophone world, where his first release in English was 2004’s ‘Neapolitan noir’ 5 is the Perfect Number. Behind the enigmatic title it’s an artful take on the gangster genre.
Actually, Peppino lo Cicero, refers to himself not as a gangster, but as a ‘guappo’, an old Neapolitan term translating as ‘ruffian’ or ‘outlaw’, but nevertheless implyng a certain code of honour. The book opens with the retired Peppino, discussing such matters with his son Nino, as the latter musters himself for a hit. Events don’t go to plan, so drawing Peppino out of retirement and into conflict with the current generation of clan bosses.
Beyond genre staples of guns, blood and corpses, there are strong dramatic elements here: a dead wife; comrades bound by decades-old loyalties; and a school-mistress strangely drawn to a gangster. Surprisingly, money hardly features, and when it does it’s the means and not the end, with conflict instead driven by… what? Igort nudges his pieces around the board engagingly, but without compelling logic, or convincing emotional effect. Gunfights are visual tours de force, but often happen without build up or tension. A mid-point action by Peppino is startling, yet may leave readers guessing why. A final chapter, almost a long epilogue, and set elsewhere, adds to a fragmentary quality.
There are hints of themes: Peppino’s tested faith; crime generations and their changing values; predetermination, independence and impulse; but these are told more than shown, and not convincingly developed over the book. The exception is the attraction to the guappo life, with Nino’s disenchantment then Peppino’s re-enchantment. That culminates in an unexpected turn, but doesn’t feel properly earned. Igort also throws around multiple symbols: 5 is the Perfect Number, Peppino latterly explains, means “two arms two legs one head” a symbol of a self-sufficient man. It provides an intriguing title, but is contradicted by the aid Peppino receives from others. An old comrade, an old flame, and a gangland doctor, enable Peppino’s turbulent new life, at some cost to themselves, and without convincing reasons, or emotions.
Too many other symbols include Nino feeling a dead cat inside him, dreaming himself as a pig, then most bizarrely, of being hunted by a duck riding upon another duck. Such images are memorable for the reader, though apparently soon forgotten by the author.
However, Igort’s writing enables artwork that’s beautiful, and endlessly fresh. He conjures rich, evocative settings packed with impressionist detail. Scenes in the Italian sunlight are rendered in heat-haze warped hand-drawn lines. The night-time/crime scenes are suitably noirish, figures only picked out from areas of black and white, adding to the tension. This draws the reader into the scene – trying to get their bearings and distinguish friend from foe. Characters are well designed and distinctive. Igort is as much designer as illustrator, each page being a fresh visual delight, with huge and tiny panels, bold layouts, and artful use of space. A single blue-grey tone adds both coherence and appeal, picking out details in Igort’s packed pages. He masters on atmosphere, the opening scene signalling the implicit focus of the book being the vivid conjuring of people and place.
Igort’s story is engaging, but stands little scrutiny. However his art does, and makes 5 is the Perfect Number worth the price for that alone. The book was named ‘Graphic Novel of the Year’ at the 2003 Frankfurt Book Fair, and developed into a feature film by Igort himself.
